The lean hog commodity futures contract (which is a contract for the hog’s carcass) trades on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and is used primarily by producers of lean hogs — both domestic and international[more…]

Essentially, the term pork bellies is the commodity traders’ way of saying bacon. Physically, pork bellies come from the underside of a hog and weigh approximately 12 Pounds. These pork bellies are generally[more…]

Unlike other commodities that are dominated by single producers — Saudi Arabia and oil, the Ivory Coast and cocoa, Russia and palladium — no one country dominates wheat production. As a matter of fact,[more…]

Soybeans are used for everything from poultry feedstock to the creation of vegetable oil. There are different soybean extracts you can trade on the commodities markets: soybeans themselves, soybean oil[more…]

As with a number of other commodities, coffee production is dominated by a handful of countries. Brazil has historically been the top producer of coffee in the world and has held this position for several[more…]

Like coffee, the cocoa commodities market is subject to seasonal and cyclical factors that have a large impact on price movements. Check out the price of the ICE cocoa futures contract in recent years.[more…]

Orange juice is one of the only actively traded contracts in the futures markets that’s based on a tropical fruit: oranges. Oranges are widely grown in the Western Hemisphere, particularly in Florida and[more…]